Paul Hartnoll's favourite music software

The Orbital man picks his DAWs and plug-ins of choice

Apple Logic Pro

“Logic Pro is where I do all my writing and I love almost every aspect of it. My favourite bits of it are its openness, the way I can work without it becoming too technical, unless I want it to - then it’s so vast I’d never see the bottom.

"The plug-ins are fantastic, too, but I know people who use Logic and bypass them for third-party ones without even trying them out properly. Fools! The synths are brilliant, as is Ultrabeat, but the sampler could do with being overhauled, as it’s way out of date compared to the competition."

Ableton Live 8

"Without a doubt my favourite live tool."

“Without a doubt my favourite live tool, and I enjoy using it as a studio writing tool as well, but it’s a little bit more haphazard. Live is where I go if I don’t know where I want to go, if you know what I mean. It’s like a fun playground.”

Sonic Charge Synplant

"A really quirky but infinitely usable soft synth."

“This is absolutely incredible. I did a film score recently with just analogue synths and Synplant. It has a different mindset and that’s what you go to it for, plus it’s got some amazing capabilities. There’s the way that it’s like a different sound on each note, which you can then spin while it changes the assignment of where the sound comes from. It’s a really quirky but infinitely usable soft synth.”